Do you believe everything you see on TV?
Here we are, the second week into the story, and it's still all about how Cheney did not show sufficient respect to David Gregory. The stories about drinking, negligence, killing cute little birdies and the default story about Cheney being an out-of-control, bloodthirsty, war mongering, violent person never got off the ground.
If you think this is by accident, I have a bridge you might be interested in. For sale, cheap!
The MSM was going to hit Cheney with both barrels, no matter what. Now they are spinning their wheels trying to inflict damage on an issue that 99.9% of the people could not care less about. Does it really matter to anybody, besides David Gregory, if David Gregory was informed of this accident at the end of the day Saturday or first thing Sunday morning?
The fact that no one is buying the notion that the story is about the media's reaction, not Cheney's doesn't slow you down one bit, does it?
Buried in the Time cover story, however, was one brain-teaser that could fuel more speculation, as it contradicts earlier explanations that Cheney wanted to get the full story out, he was just a bit tardy about it. The passage reads:
"At about 8 a.m. Sunday, a Cheney aide called strategist Mary Matalin, who regularly advises the Vice President. The aide read her a statement about the accident that Cheney had considered releasing before he decided to encourage Armstrong to go to the (Corpus Christi) Caller-Times.
"But the statement 'didn't say much of anything,' Matalin says—not even that Cheney was the shooter. Matalin then spoke with a second aide and with Cheney's family and heard different versions of what had happened in the shooting. She decided no statement should be released amid the confusion. Matalin spoke with Cheney, and, she says, they agreed that 'a fuller accounting, with an eyewitness,' would be preferable."
Time also reports a poll showing that almost two-thirds of Americans (65%) think Cheney should have taken immediate responsibility for the shooting incident. His approval rating stands at 29%; President Bush's approval rating is 40%.